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Sunday, August 22, 2010

Just having a browse through notcot.org as a friend had sent me a link to the amazing ocean-green surfboards. Looking at all the products (some of which are far more interesting than others), the main thing that the website uses is a medium thumbnail image to catch my attention, with a short sentence to describe the product. This is the one thing that regulates which of the squares are clicked on and how many hits you get on your website, so the ability to capture the product and communicate you're ideas in a photo is extremely important.Of the products I chose to investigate, most of them where the images that communicated enough information but not all, maybe the picture was of a detail or from an interesting angle, this made me even more inquisitive to find out about said product. So this sense of intrigue is important because if the image communicates too much then why should I bother going to their website to find out more info when I have it all right in front of me. These are important points to consider as I'm trying to capture my products in a way that speaks of the idea yet adds intrigue and draws people in who may not even surf but are inquisitive to read more about these new boards.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

The rather large gap in time between my last post and these posts tonight has a lot to do with the ridiculous hours I was spending in the workshop building surfboards. I think blogging that experience would have been a plus, but my work, eat, sleep routine couldn't allow any flexibility for blogging. Thankfully I had the foresight to record the experience in film and here is the heavily edited version, sped up about 100 times. I will make a 'directors cut' which I might even sit in a folding deck chair and narrate the entire film... just so I can add it as a special feature. Jokes aside, it has really helped in the reflective practice even putting the video together I could analyse my process and make quick reflections on what I could change for the next iteration.

After completing my 20min seminar not only was I exceptionally relieved, but also far more confident and keen to have another go. I've watched my fair share of TED talks and it's fair to say some people are much better communicators than others, I think this has a lot to do with the balance between an engaging visual presentation and also communicating ideas verbally in a way that people can be drawn in and in a way entertained with knowledge about my project. Weather or not I managed to verbally communicate the ideas surrounding my project well or not, was helped immensely by my visual presentation as it took most of the attention away from me droaning on about surfboards and helped the audience jump into my thoughts and feelings regarding toxic chemicals and the manufacturing process of surfboards... well that was the plan anyway. I mean who wants a room full of bored people staring you down picking out the flaws in your ideas because they can't relate or engage with the project... it can seem that way.If I were to do it again I would probably try to speak around the on screen images in a way that flowed better as it felt like my presentation stalled a couple of times, both the visuals when I had too much info to talk about regarding a slide and then when I'd run short of things to say when a video would play too long. Nonetheless talking in front of an audience is skill that would probably take a while to master, and I don't think it's just for those who have a gift of the gab, after all you have to have something interesting to talk about. Unless of course humor is used and then you can actually talk to the audience about the speech you're giving them...